The Treaty of Hamburg, signed on 5 March 1638 (to "l'echange des ratifications du Traite conclu a Wismar le 20 Mars 1636), was the ratification of the important Treaty of Wismar a full two years after it had been negotiated by

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and representatives of Queen Christina of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. As it provided the Swedes with crucial funds to go on the offensive again, it was a major turning point of the

Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...

. In 1634 the Swedes/Protestants had suffered a crushing defeat at Nördlingen and it was clear to the French that they had to be much more active or

Ferdinand II, Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II (9 July 1578 – 15 February 1637) was Holy Roman Emperor, King of Bohemia, King of Hungary, Hungary, and List of Croatian monarchs, Croatia from 1619 until his death in 1637. He was the son of Archduke Charles II, Archduke of Austr ...

would win the war. The half-hearted Treaty of Compiègne in April 1635 was a first attempt to support the Swedes but after their most powerful former ally Saxony had changed sides in the Peace of Prague in May and the dissolution of the Protestant Heilbronn League which had provided the greatest share of Swedish finance the Protestant cause looked desperate. Swedish chancellor Axel Oxenstierna at the time was open to a financial offer by the Emperor but that never materialized. Also in May 1635 the French war with Spanish Habsburg broke out. In October, the highly regarded Protestant Bernard of Saxe-Weimar and his formerly Swedish mercenary army were taken into French service, so basically cash-strapped Sweden had to hold on to Northern Germany only with a hand full of Northern allies. The victory at Wittstock in Brandenburg in October 1636, two years after Nördlingen, proved that Sweden was still a player but before the treaty of Hamburg Johan Banér was chased from Saxony to Pommern by Matthias Gallas in 1637. Based on the terms of the treaty, France paid Sweden 1,000,000 livres for its military contributions against the Habsburgs. Moreover, the accord confirmed their alliance set by the tenets of the Treaty of Wismar which had been negotiated in March 1636.

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Chronology of Sweden
1638 treaties Hamburg (1638) Hamburg (1638) Treaty of Hamburg (1638) 1638 in Sweden 1638 in France France–Sweden relations Bilateral treaties of Sweden Bilateral treaties of France Thirty Years' War Cardinal Richelieu Christina, Queen of Sweden {{Germany-hist-stub

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